Hand-guard for printing-presses



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HAND GUARD FOB PR'NTINGIRESSES.

APPLICATION FILED ran. 28, 1919.

1,338,780. I Patnted' May 4,1920.

5 nve n foz SAMUEL Kenna, or ivn'wxonx, N; Y.

-HA-ND-GUARD FOR PRINTING-PRESSES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 4, 1920.

Application filed February 28, 1919. Serial No. 279,799.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SAMUEL KUPFER, a citizen of Austria-Hungary, residing at New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Hand-Guards for Printing-Presses, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact specification.

This invention relates to guards for print ing presses, and its purpose is to provide a simple and inexpensive device of this character, which is easily applied or removed, which is not liable to get out of order very readily and which, when in position on the machine, will act positively in fulfilling its purpose as intended by me.

My invention has been designed primarily for use in connection with printing machines of the type known as platen printing presses, and it is so shown in the drawings.

I do not wish to limit myself, however, to this particular use, and it is evident that various modifications may be made in the construction of my device as well as in its application, without departing from the spirit of my invention as set forth in the appended claims.

In presses of the type mentioned, the platen carrying the paper to be printed,

swings from an approximately horizontal;

position, in which the paper is placed on such platen, to an approximately vertical position, in which the printing takes place, the plate (generally called the bed) which carries thetype form moving'forward, into contact with said platen, thus making an impression on the paper carried on the platen. The platen thenswings back, whereupon the printed sheet is removed with one hand and a blank sheet substituted with the. other hand, only a very short space of time being available for this exchange. It often happens that the operator is still engaged in placing the new sheet in'position, while the platen is already swinging toward the printing position, and if he is not quick enough in withdrawing his hand, or if through carelessness or inadvertence he does not remove his hand, he is-liable to have his fingers crushed between the platen and the printing plate or bed.

It is the purpose of my invention to prevent such an accident, by providing a device which will automatically lift the hand of the operator away from the platen, when the latter moves toward the printing position, thus safeguarding the operator against accidents of the kind mentioned.

l In the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, I have indicated diagrammatically certain parts of a printing press of the type described, provided with i 2 shows the platen and the safety device in the position in which the exchange 'of sheets takes place; Fig. 3 is an end elevation of the safety device proper; and Fig. 4: is a section taken on line 4r--4: of Fig. 3 and Fig. 5 is a perspective view of a portion of the safety device proper. 7

In Figs. 1 and 2, A designates the customary feed board supported rigidly on the frame B of the press, this feed board serving as a table carrying a supply of paper to be printed, and also receiving the printed sheets, as they are removed from the platen.

The platen C is secured by means of screw bolts D and nuts D, D to a'rocker E mounted to rock on a shaft F in such a way as to bring the platen from its approximately horizontal position shown in Fig. 2 to the printing position shown in Fig. 1. This is accomplished by well-known means, such as, for instance, a roller (not shown) on a crank mounted on the rock shaft F, which roller travels in a cam wheel or disk (not shown) mounted on the drive shaft G carried by the frame B in advance of the rock shaft F.

a H' indicates the type-carrying plate or bed which is so mounted that when the platen moves from its approximately horizontal position to its printing position, it will move forward and be pressed against the platen C and make an impression on the paper held on saidplaten. The platen then swings away and the bed moves backward, whereupon the inking rollers I, which are normally held on the inking disk J, swing downward and pass over the type plate, so as to ink the type. The details of these various devices are not shown, as they are old and well known, and have no direct relation to my invention.

My safety device is constructed preferably as follows:

An oblong plate K, made of sheet metal or other suitable material, of substantially the length of the platen, has a rounded upper edge or head K, and has hinged to its lower edge at K, leaves or lugs L, having cut-out portions or slots L. Between said hinge leaves the plate I: carries, rigidly secured thereto, as, for instance, by screws M", a tongue M extending downwardly beyond the lower edge of the plate, the free portion of said tongue being first bent away from the plane of the plate and then again toward said plane, for a purpose to be described below.

The hinge leaves L, serve as means for securing the guard plate'to the press; this is done in the following manner:

I first remove, or rather loosen, the nuts D on the end of the screws D. Then I slip the hinge leaves L in between the said nuts D" and the rocker E, until the slots L engage the screws D, whereupon the nuts ,D are tightened again, and the guard is thus held securely in place on the rockerE (and therefore also on the platen C) with the tongue M extending back under the feed rocker and the nuts D and to tighten these nuts again. These features of my invention are of particular advantage.

It will be understood that the guard takes part in the swinging movement of the rocker E and platen C. In the position of the platen shown in Fig. 2, (in which, as above described, the paper is placed on the platen), the guard will be out of the way, with its upper edge engaging the side of the platen. \Vhen, however, the latter swings toward the printing position, the tongue end will slide over the shaft Gr, and cause the guard plate K to swing away from the platen C, the upper edge K of said plate rising gradually above the horizontal plane containing the upper edge of the platen. It will be clear that this movement of the guard plate will lift the hand of the operator, in case it is still in contact with the platen, away from said platen (as indicated in Fig. 1), thus acting as a fender so to speak, which pushes the hand away from the platen and bed which at this time are rapidly nearing-each other. The impact of the plate with the hand may'tend to swing the plate down toward the platen, but the arm or tongue M will stop this tendency by coming in contact, from below, with the feed board A, this position being shown in Fig. 1.

For the purpose of softening the impact with the hand, and also to prevent the upper edge of the guard plate from striking too.

1. In a printing press having a stationary feed board, a bed, and a platen movable toward and from said bed, a hand guard hinged to the platen, and having a tongue adapted to engage said feed board during the printing movement of the platen to swing the guard across the position of the operators hand.

2. In a printing press having a stationary feed board, a bed, and a platen movable toward and from said'bed, a hand guard hinged to the platen, and means on said guard to engage said feed board during the printing movement of the platen to swing the guard across the position of the operators hand. i

3. In a printing press having a bed and a platen movable toward and from said bed, a hand guard having hinge plates at its lower edge for connection with said platen, and a tongue extending from said lower edge of the guard plate and adapted to engage a stationary part during the printing movement of said platen, to raise the guard and swing it across the position of the operators hand; 7 r

1. In a printing press having a printing bed, a rocker, a platen, means for rigidly connecting said platen with said rocker,

and a hand guard having hinge plates at its lower edge, said hinge plates being secured to the rocker by the same means which connect the platen with the rocker.

5. In a printing press having a printing bed, a rocker, a platen, bolts and nutsfor securing said platen to said rocker, a hand guard, lugs at the lower edge of said guard hingedly connected therewith, said lugs having slots to fit said bolts and being adapted to be rigidly secured to said rocker by said nuts. 1

' SAMUEL ICU-PEER. 

